


(If We Have To Fight) Let's Fight For Love

by SweetPollyOliver



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bisexual Male Character, Closeted Character, Drug Abuse, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Slurs, Wizard of Oz References
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-21 06:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30017310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetPollyOliver/pseuds/SweetPollyOliver
Summary: Johnny has spent forty years pretending he doesn't love Judy Garland and it turns out that's not even a thing people make assumptions about anymore.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 28
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> CW: overdose mention, homophobia, queer used as a slur, ableism

Halfway through a kata, Johnny's phone started playing the Wicked Witch of the West's theme and he grimaced before taking it out of his pocket and hitting decline. 

"Sorry," he said to the class. "Fuckin' Kreese."

Several of the kids started to laugh and even Sam's face twitched with barely contained mirth. 

"He is kind of an 'I'll get you, my pretty' type," Chris said, swinging his arms from side to side now that they'd fallen out of their stances. 

"Hey, if he's the Wicked Witch who are we?" Demetri asked. "Dibs on the Wizard!"

"Dream on, Cowardly Lion," Johnny snorted. 

He was halfway to telling them to get back to work, but then he saw Daniel raising his hands to do the very same thing and he pointed impulsively at Nate and Bert in turn. 

"You two: Lollipop Guild."

"Well calling them munchkins is a step up from Assface and Douchebag." Daniel shifted his weight onto one side and put his hand on his hip. 

"Hey!" Mitch said, pointing between himself and Chris. " _We're_ Assface and Douchebag!"

"Man, come on," Chris muttered. 

"Nah, you're the trees who threw the apples," Johnny said tapping his chin. 

"So we don't even get names?" Mitch asked.

"You're welcome to go back to Penis Breath."

"I'm good with being an apple tree." Chris raised his hand. 

"Am I Dorothy, sensei?" Sam asked, cheeks dimpling, and Johnny replied without thinking. 

"No, _I'm_ Dorothy obviously." 

His chest lurched and he felt his palms start to sweat once the words were out of his mouth, but before he could laugh it off like he'd been being sarcastic Hawk cut in. 

"Does that make Miguel Toto?" he asked, giving his friend a nudge. 

"Nah, dude, come on. Racist," Johnny replied. "Miguel is the Tin Man. You gotta keep up with your physiotherapy, man, you're moving like you've got rust. Oilcan, oilcan!" 

Hawk opened his mouth again.

"You're a flying monkey," Johnny said shortly and Hawk grinned wide, reaching out to fistbump Miguel. 

He made his way around the class. And then started shifting back into the stance they had been in before his phone went off. 

"What about Mr L?" Demetri asked and Johnny sighed, straightening back up. 

"This guy?" He pointed at Daniel. "If he only had a brain: Sensei LaRusso is the Scarecrow." 

Daniel reached out and gave his shoulder a little shake.

"Well I've got no problem being a friend of Dorothy," he said with a smile.

Johnny's eyebrows shot up. The kids seemed notably unmoved by their sensei coming out to them and Johnny looked from the class back to Daniel. The other man leaned close and whispered in his ear. 

"That's not really a reference they're old enough to get. The gays love Gaga not Garland now." 

"Oh," Johnny replied. He had spent around forty years pretending he didn't love Judy Garland. "Good to know." 

And, okay, everyone watched The Wizard of Oz when they were little and everyone loved Dorothy. That was fine. But he loved Judy. Always had, as long as he could remember. She'd hovered over his childhood like an angel who'd put in too many late nights for shit pay. 

She hadn't been dead all his life, but he had been a chubby cheeked toddler just shy of his second birthday when she was found in her London apartment after what the coroner called an incautious self-overdosage of barbiturates. 

His mom lit a candle every year on June 22 like she'd been a beloved aunt. Most other days she played her albums all day and then when she'd finally lift the needle and turn the vinyl off she would sing the songs herself to settle him to sleep. 

"More, mama, more!" he'd clap his little hands together and bounce up and down on the bed. 

"We'll stay all night and we'll sing 'em all!" she'd reply and tickle him until he shrieked with delight. 

Well. That was when he was little anyway.

Sid didn't like Judy Garland. 

Specifically, he didn't like that Johnny liked Judy Garland. 

"What kind of boy your age sings and dances along to Get Happy?" he'd asked, early in his marriage to Johnny's mother. "I'll tell you what kind, a-"

"Sid, please!" His mom put her hands over Johnny's ears and tugged him to her chest. 

"He's not a baby, Laura, don't coddle him," Sid said, looming over both of them. 

"He's my baby," she replied, voice only wavering a little. "And what's the harm of singing and dancing?"

"I'm already raising some other man's child: I'm not bringing up a queer." 

He'd heard the word before, of course, even if what it meant was still a vague concept. He knew it was bad. 

He got headphones and he got less happy. 

When the last of the afternoon's class trickled out Johnny stared after them and then shook himself a little. 

"We gotta do any paperwork or anything today?" he asked Daniel. 

"A little," the other man confirmed, while plucking an empty energy drink can off the grass that had rolled out of Hawk's bag. "I swear to God…."

"It was an accident, man, he wasn't littering. Go easy on him," Johnny replied.

"It's not that," Daniel said, wincing a little as he straightened up. They were getting old. "I'm worried he's gonna keel over of a heart attack during class one day if he keeps drinking these."

"You drank an espresso before they got here, you old hypocrite," Johnny punched him lightly on the shoulder as he walked by him. 

"Yeah, maybe," Daniel laughed under his breath. "You coming in?"

"Hey, uh, Daniel?" Johnny cleared his throat. "You know that thing you said?" 

He thought for a second Daniel would play coy, but he just stood looking over and him and waiting expectantly for Johnny to finish his thought.

" _Are_ you a friend of Dorothy? Or was that, like, a joke?" 

Daniel sighed and pushed his sweaty hair back, but he smiled too. 

"Yeah, I am," he said. "I'm bi."

"Oh," Johnny replied. "That's cool. Is it a secret?" 

Daniel smiled wider and then laughed a little. 

"It's not a secret, but thanks for checking."

"No problem," Johnny said. "So… paperwork?"

"Yeah," Daniel said, snapping back to attention and continuing to head inside. "Paperwork." 

He thought that would be it to be honest. But it turned out that that declined call from Kreese was the start of something bigger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: discussion of addiction and exploitation

It was one thing being told he was working off an old set of stereotypes, but it was another to believe it.

Miguel slid into the car and tilted his head at the sound of The Trolley Song coming from the speaker.

"Is this the radio?" he asked.

"Nah, it's a tape," Johnny replied. His fingers flexed a little on the steering wheel as he pulled out onto the road. "It's from Meet Me in St. Louis."

"I didn't know you liked this type of music," Miguel added.

Johnny swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. "There's a lot you don't know about me, kid."

He winced. That could have sounded better. Miguel looked at him some more. Fuck. If LaRusso had set him up…

"Do you like a lot of musicals, sensei?"

Johnny nearly veered off the road.

"No, what- what kind of question is that?" he asked.

"It's just you're listening to-" Miguel gestured towards the stereo.

"I like good old fashioned American _movie_ musicals," Johnny replied shortly. "I don't like dumb plays where people sing and dance for no reason. That's some East coast shit."

"What makes a movie different?" Miguel's brow wrinkled.

"Just shut up and listen," Johnny muttered.

When Judy got to 'buzz, buzz, buzz went the buzzer' he looked over at Miguel again.

"She got that line wrong, you know," he said casually. "I can't remember what it was supposed to be, but 'buzz, buzz, buzz' was wrong. But the rest was so perfect they kept that take."

"Oh," Miguel frowned again trying to find the lesson. "So… even if you make a mistake, you can still-"

"Yeah," Johnny waved shortly. "Somethin' like that."

"Who is this?" Miguel asked and Johnny gave him a long look before fixing his eyes back on the road.

"We were talking about her literally this week," he said. "It's Judy Garland, man."

At Miguel's blank look he sighed and added. "She was Dorothy Gale."

"Oh cool!" Miguel replied. "I haven't seen any of her other movies."

"She made like forty," Johnny said, addressing the road. "MGM pumped her full of pills so she could work all the time when she was a kid."

"Jesus," Miguel said. "Kind of takes the shine off 'buzz, buzz, buzz went the buzzer.'"

"Yeah," Johnny said.

"I guess labour laws for actors weren't great back then," he said.

"Nope," Johnny replied. "Then they kicked her out of the studio when she kept having problems because of the shit they had her on. She was an addict her whole life after that."

"That's really sad," Miguel said softly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Miguel look back into the backseat where Johnny had a twelve pack of Coors sitting.

"You wanna listen to Metallica?" Johnny said, changing the tape as the song ended.

**Author's Note:**

>  **me:** hey, I'm nearly finished one of my WIPs! I can move on to another in the backlog soon :D  
>  **the gremlin that lives in my brain:** incorrect, you're writing fic about Johnny Lawrence being a Judy Garland stan next


End file.
